OUR STORY
Like many other New Yorkers, I, too, am deeply disturbed by the situation of so many people experiencing homelessness and neglect.
Low-income and those chronically underemployed New Yorkers face myriad challenges in overcoming their circumstances. These difficulties inevitably lead them to feelings of hopelessness and lack of worth. Just as trash is deemed useless and discarded, the same judgment is leveled on this population - as though their lives no longer have value.
When I began researching how I could serve this population, I found many private and government-funded organizations focused solely on relief through charity. Some have been there for over 100 years, providing free food and shelter. While I’m certainly not against providing for urgent needs, I believe we cannot stop there. Long-term rehabilitation and development are the necessary next steps.
In 2019 I started the Gleaning Project in response to this situation. It began as a weekly meeting with the target population, where we worked with discarded materials. This is the vision of the Gleaning Project for filling the gap between the needs of that community for safe, dignified work and the limited options available to them in the traditional job market, from which they are often excluded. The Gleaning Project employs this population in art production. We want them to see the fruits of their labor, not just in receiving compensation for their work but in the feeling of accomplishment that brings art into being while belonging to a community.
The pieces I design do not require high skill levels to be produced, providing a low bar of entry into meaningful, rewarding work. Our neighbors would have a chance to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of making art and feel a sense of purpose in this work as we care for each other and the environment.
The art pieces we produce are metaphorical. Everything is made entirely of ‘trash’ - used shopping bags, plastic containers, aluminum foil, etc. It transforms the discarded materials into evocative and truthful artwork. By bringing new life into these objects, we hope to encourage this underserved population to see new possibilities for their own lives.
Noemia Marinho - The artist
I am a self-taught visual artist, born and raised in Brazil. I have personal identification with poverty, having grown up poor in Brazil, so I understand the daily struggle to stay afloat from my perspective. This cultivated a thrifty mindset that has found its way into my creative process, as evidenced by the meticulous dismantling and careful use of every last part of the “trash” that makes up my raw material. I have experienced the transformative power of the arts in my own life as someone who discovered my artistic inclinations later in life and didn’t get to go to art school or traditionally enter the field.
My art is about transforming discarded materials - plastic bags, milk cartons, plastic bottles, used tea bags - into artwork. My process reflects my Brazilian upbringing and artisan heritage – all are hand-made, crocheted, woven, hand-pressed, and even baked. As a woman who spent most of my life relegated to housework under the thumb of a sexist upbringing, I used the skills gained through those activities as a springboard for my art. My life experience has been my act of resistance – taking the skills gained through a life of unacknowledged service and using them for creativity and self-expression.